1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automobile, which has a seat member that is disposed within a vehicle interior so as to be movable between a use position where a seated person can be supported and a non-use position in the upper part of the vehicle interior, and a locking member that is engaged with a striker fixed to the vehicle body and thereby locks the seat member to the vehicle body when the seat member is in its non-use position. The locking member is supported on the seat member so as to be rotatable between a locking position where an engaging concave portion of the locking member is engaged with the striker to lock the seat member to its non-use position, and a lock releasing position where the engaging concave portion is removed from the striker to release the lock of the seat member to the vehicle body.
2. Description of the Related Art
An automobile comprising a seat member disposed within a vehicle interior and supported so as to be movable between the use position and the non-use position that is located in the upper part of the vehicle interior is well known. See Laid-open Japanese Patent Application (Publication number 2001-130303). The seat member is constituted in the form of a seat back for supporting the back of a seated person or a seat cushion for supporting the hip of the seated person, for example. This type of automobile is capable of storing the seat member into the non-use position located in the upper part of the vehicle interior to secure a large space below, so that luggage can be stored therein.
Incidentally, the seat member is lifted up from the use position to the non-use position by using the biasing force of biasing means constituted in the form of a gas damper stay or a spiral spring, for example. Sometimes biasing means constituted by a damper stay and a spring is used. In this case, when the seat member is lifted up to the non-use position, sometimes the biasing force of the biasing means is so weak that the seat member stops at a position immediately before the non-use position of the seat member before reaching the non-use position. Especially in the case in which a gas damper stay is used as the biasing means, when the temperature is low, the pressure inside the cylinder of the gas damper stay decreases and thereby the biasing force of the gas damper stay decreases significantly, causing a problem that the seat member stops at a position immediately before the non-use position at the upper part of the vehicle interior. A similar situation occurs even when the seat member is lifted up to its non-use position by the force of an operator only.
At this case, it is not easy to lift up the seat member from the position immediately before the non-use position to the non-use position only by means of the operator's power, because the operator has to stand at an uncomfortable position.